Tempest (Royce/Winston)

071

Jacob's P.O.V.

"Are you ready to piece this puzzle together?"

I stared at Winston before laughing loudly, I had to cover my mouth with my hand because he was absolutely ridiculous. It'd been a whole entire week since I asked Winston to help me piece together my brother's death and we were finally just now able to begin.

"What're these, Winnie?" I asked, poking at the glasses that were perched on his nose.

"They're my detective glasses, Jacob".

"Oh, so I'm going to assume that the hat you're wearing is your detective hat then?"

I eyed the weird looking hat that was covering Winston's hair. It looked to have both a front and a back, and I didn't understand why.

"Mhm" Winston hummed in affirmation.

"Why does it look like that?"

"It's a Sherlock Holmes hat! Haven't you watched any of the Sherlock Holmes movies before?"

I shook my head a little.

"We've got to have a marathon one day and just sit down and watch all of the movies. They're really good, Jacob".

"Okay" I chuckled, "but why do you have a hat like this Sherlock Holmes guy?"

Winston sighed, "listen, don't laugh when I tell you this, okay? I used to be a huge fan of detective movies, Sherlock Holmes was my all time favorite. I invested in the complete Sherlock Holmes book series, I have the whole DVD set of the movies, and I even bought myself a hat".

I know Winston didn't want me to laugh at him, but I couldn't help but to do so. I was laughing so much that I had to cover my stomach with my arms because it was hurting so bad.

"I said not to laugh!" Winston exclaimed, beginning to laugh along with me.

"I'm sorry" I apologized, getting a hold of myself. "It's just" I reached out and cupped Winston's face in my hands. "You sound like such a nerd when you were little. How old were you when you got all of that stuff?"

It took him a few minutes to respond and at first I didn't understand why.

"I was sixteen".

To keep myself from laughing again, I kissed him instead. Little chuckles slipped past my lips though, and when I pulled away from Winston, he was pouting.

"I'm in love with a nerd" I joked, smiling at him.

He quirked an eyebrow in interest, "what was that?"

My eyes widened in realization and I quickly shook my head, "I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry for even saying something like that. We're not even together and I'm saying that I'm in love with you".

"I was more so talking about how you called me a nerd" Winston stated.

"Oh..." I'm pretty sure my face was beginning to turn red from embarrassment. "So... So you're okay with what I said? The other thing I mean..."

"Yes" he nodded, "now about you calling me a nerd, liking Sherlock Holmes does not make me a nerd, just so you know. I was just a dedicated fan who wanted to remember their idol, thank you very much".

"Right, my apologies. I will never call you a nerd again" I said, sighing afterwards in relief.

Thank goodness that Winston didn't make a huge deal about saying that I was in love him. I was already shocked and embarrassed that I had said it, I didn't need him truly acknowledging it like he could've. It had honestly just slipped out, and I don't think I truly meant it in the way it had sounded, but then if I didn't, why would I have said it in the first place?